Thought leadership with authoritative content writing
Thought leadership is very important in the B2B marketplace, according to this LinkedIn post. How can you build thought leadership with authoritative content writing?
What exactly is thought leadership?
Thought leadership is your ability to use your expertise, perspective and experience in an industry to inspire, innovate and influence a positive change.
When you are a thought leader, people pay close attention to what you say. They want to implement your suggestions because they are sure that your suggestions are powerful and effective. Even if they don’t directly work with you, just because you are sharing your wisdom and expertise, they want to implement your ideas hoping that just as you and your business partners have benefited from them, they will benefit from them too.
Beyond a certain level, every business wants to work with the leader because the leader comes with assured results.
Thought leadership is different from being a teacher. If you are a teacher in an MBA college where you are regularly teaching students to become business leaders, you may not be considered as a thought leader because you are not actually working in the trenches. You are simply sharing your knowledge, which is of course, important.
A thought leader doesn’t just share his experience and knowledge in a clear, understandable manner, he also uses his experience and knowledge to help his or other businesses grow.
Why becoming a thought leader with authoritative content writing is important?
If you want businesses to work with you, you need to let it be known to them that you’re not just available to them, you’re also the most capable person to do their job.
We live and work in a noisy environment these days. Whether you use a computer or a mobile phone, distractions are constantly vying for your attention.
Everyone these days has something to say. It’s a good thing. It democratizes our ability to communicate. There was a time when only people with resources could disseminate their ideas and opinions. No longer is the case.
The downside is, there is too much content on the Internet. It becomes difficult to wade through the clutter and reach, or even notice something worth paying attention to.
Authoritative content writing is the solution.
What is authoritative content writing?
When you publish blog posts and articles you want to showcase your expertise and your ability to communicate.
You want people to know that you have solved complex problems. You want to tell them that it is profitable to work with you. Unless you tell them, they’re not going to know.
How do you tell them?
By constantly sharing your knowledge and wisdom with them.
Why constantly?
Millions of pieces of content are published every day. New content is constantly being pushed down or pushed away by newer content. Search engines and social media websites are ever hungry for fresh content.
Even if this fresh content is total junk, just because it is fresh compared to your quality content, your quality content is going to be relegated to oblivion sooner than later. This is a sad reality, but it is a reality you cannot escape from.
Being a thought leader, you cannot write and publish mediocre content. This is because, then you will become a part of the herd and it will be difficult for your prospective clients and customers to distinguish you from the others. You need to stand out.
This is where authority content writing comes into picture.
Authoritative content writing has the following attributes:
- It contains research data from authoritative sources that are difficult to dispute.
- The writing is confident, fluent and masterly.
- It contains lots of unique perspective.
- It makes strong claims that can be underpinned by indisputable data.
- It forces people to change their thinking.
- It is full of hope and promise.
- It is shared and disseminated using appropriate broadcasting channels.
Unless people feel positive about you, they’re not going to decide to work with you. So, one of the most important attributes of authoritative content writing is that it should be full of hope and promise.
Along with the attributes mentioned above, to establish your thought leadership, you need to write and publish content regularly. As mentioned above, millions of content pieces are being published every day. You need to remain visible.
So, it’s not that one day you wake up, write a great blog post full of knowledge and wisdom, publish it, share it on LinkedIn and Twitter, and then you’re going to reap its benefits for months to come.
It doesn’t work this way. 99.99% people won’t even take notice of what you have written and published. People pay attention to you when you regularly appear on their timelines. And even there, you need to be impressive. You need to provide something compelling so that they take note of what you have to say.
In which type of business does thought leadership matter?
In whichever business people need to trust you. In fact, if you’re using content marketing to draw prospective customers and clients, you can use thought leadership through authoritative content writing.
In content marketing, you will notice that experts and professionals who have been able to establish themselves as thought leaders in their fields get more exposure. Their blog posts, articles and social media updates are shared more. People want to follow them. Businesses want to work with them.
Unless you are a big brand like IBM, Apple or Microsoft, thought leadership works better through personal brands. To get businesses and people attracted to you, you need to be influential in your field. Everybody wants to work with people who are known to get results. As a thought leader, you are in a better position to deliver results than a person who is lesser-known.
I’m not saying that a lesser-known person is less capable of delivering results, but if you build your thought leadership through authoritative content writing (or through videos, or whatever format suits you), it becomes easier for people to find you. Einstein and Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have been what they were had they been working in their laboratories all their lives without building a brand for themselves through sharing their ideas among people.
So, if personal branding matters in your business, then building your thought leadership can significantly increase your presence.